1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of gamma correction. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the digital enhancement and implementation of gamma curves for a display.
2. Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are important to the television market. However, pushing LCDs to the next generation by simply scaling existing LCD monitor panels to wider formats (e.g., 16:9 HDTV) and larger formats is a complicated endeavor. A number of television requirements push beyond conventional state-of-the art monitors. For instance, contrast enhancement issues require a re-engineering of the monitor solution.
In particular, gamma correction enhances the display of color. Specifically gamma correction is performed to compensate for the nonlinear effects of the intensity distribution and interrelationship of contrast between light and dark regions of a display device, and the nonlinear processing of the color in the human eye. For instance, the grayscale distribution of the intensity of a color is linear, which can be translated to voltage signals for a display device. However, the luminance of a display device is generally not a linear function of the applied voltage signal. As such, a linear translation of the luminance codes will fail to correctly reproduce the brightness variations in the displayed digital image.
In conventional systems, gamma correction is performed in an analog contrast enhancement block of a display device. The contrast enhancement block manipulates the analog tap voltages of the resistor string in order to shape a gamma curve that provides contrast enhancement. However, the analog manipulation of voltages is not appropriate in modern digital display systems.